Financial commentators have recently been highlighting the deterioration in financial stress indices. This is noteworthy given their tendency to lead equity markets, however, digging into these stress indices highlights that much of the stress they are showing...

I came back from Spring Break vacation to find a detailed speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen that further lays the groundwork for rate hikes to begin later this year. The speech is a remarkably clear elucidation of her views and provides plenty of insight into what we should...

So far 85 companies in the S&P 500 have issued negative EPS guidance, and only 16 have issued positive guidance. We could be in for a tough earnings season and if that’s the case, there’s a good chance more choppy trading lies ahead for stocks...

There is a legal concept called "odious debts." It can be traced back more than a century. The US helped create a precedent for it by denying Cuba's responsibility for the debt incurred under Spanish colonial rule. The concept took on added significance...

Last week, a coalition of predominantly Sunni Arab countries, primarily from the Arabian Peninsula and organized by Saudi Arabia, launched airstrikes in Yemen that have continued into this week. The airstrikes target Yemeni al-Houthis, a Shiite sect supported...

On March 18 the city of Georgetown, Texas announced that it would soon be generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources without any help from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power. Georgetown will be the first of many cities in Texas...

With property markets in trouble, China's speculative investors are turning to equities. Moreover, increasing numbers of new investors are entering the markets. Last week we saw more than a million new A-share accounts opened, with brokerage firms having...

Due perhaps to prior articles I’ve written on the idea of the stock market being rigged, a recent piece from the New York Post was sent my direction titled, “Stock Market Rigging Is No Longer a ‘Conspiracy Theory’”, by John Crudele. The story set forth by Crudele is..

So far the bullish themes for this year are foreign equities and U.S. bonds with the continued surge in the USD. These themes are borne out when looking at flows into exchange traded funds (ETFs) by asset class and geographic focus.